Sally Hansen Salon Effects

A couple of month ago, I started hearing about press-on nail polish. Ready-to-use nail polish strips that require no drying time.

Interested?

There are several brands on the market – Sephora Chic Prints and Sally Hansen Salon Effects being the most popular.

I decided to try the Sally Hansen strips in Bring It On – a pink glitter shade.  I’m not particularly fond of glitter nail polish because it takes me an eternity to apply and remove it well – but I figured this would be a good place to start.

In the package, there are 2 packages of 8 strips each.  One package for each hand.  The extra strips have different shapes and sizes so you can select the right size for each finger.  It took me a minute of planning to decide which strip to use on each nail, but in the end I ended up using a “wrong” size on one finger.  It wasn’t too noticible.

The directions say to use the strips in a warm enviornment.  I screwed this one up.   I did it on my freezing-cold hands at nearly midnight in a cold house.  I might even give them a quick blast with a warm blow-dryer next time – the warmth helps make the strips stretchy.

This is what it looks like after you put on the strip.  It’s way long!

You rub all over your nail with a provided orange stick (not actually orange, it’s just a wooden stick) to help the strip adhere to the nail.  I was a bit perplexed at how to trim off the remaining polish.

You actually just rub it with the provided nail file and it just falls off – but I was a bit hasty and yanked the edges off.  Which may have accounted for chips later on.

The finished manicure was impressive.  Definitely looked a LOT better than my usual DIY manis.

I was nervous to leave them without sealing them on or anything… but I did just that.  I went to bed and went about my business the next day without hesitation.

After 2 days you can see definite wear in the picture below.  Like I said, I didn’t feel like I got the edges properly sealed.

And after 3 days, things were looking pretty disastrous.

I could live with the chips on my fingers (barely), but the peel-off on my thumb was unacceptable.  I’m not sure how it happened – but I looked down and it was all but gone!

So, how do I think the strips held up?

Honestly, not too bad.  I work with my hands and am in and out of water and cardboard boxes all day long.  Even professional manicures don’t last 24 hours on my hands.

That being said, I thought these strips were pretty awesome.  Considering the zero dry time and the assortment of patterns available, I’d definitely try them again.

The only change I would make is to add a topcoat.  Maybe it was just the rough glitter finish, but I felt like a nice topcoat could have given me another day with them.  That would eliminate the no-dry time perk, but I think the results would be worth it.

All in all, I’d definitely give Sally Hansen Salon Effects another try.  The awesome patterns are worth it!

Have you tried any of the new polish strips on the market?